The story of this place
The Australian War Memorial in Canberra is not a celebration of war. It is, by design, an act of grief. The Roll of Honour — a wall of 102,000 names of Australians killed in war — lines the cloisters in bronze. Visitors touch the names. Families leave red poppies. In the Pool of Reflection, water flows so slowly it appears still. Architect Emil Sodersten won the design competition in 1927; the memorial took 14 years to build and opened in 1941 — in the middle of another world war.
The Memorial's collection includes the most significant military artefacts in Australia: the German submarine UC 74, a World War I tank, Japanese midget submarines from the Sydney Harbour attack, and wreckage from the Battle of the Coral Sea. Over 850,000 people visit annually, making it consistently Australia's most visited museum. Each day ends with the Last Post ceremony — a bugle call that has sounded every day since 1993, honouring one named casualty at a time.